The number of people filing for unemployment benefits for the first time stood at 340,000 for the week ending Saturday, falling from a revised 363,000 the week before, the Labor Department said Thursday.

The weekly figures can gyrate based on weather, holidays, data problems and other factors. The less-volatile four-week average was 339,500 last week, down 500 from the previous week.

The increase in the week ending May 11 was partly attributed to a jump of 15,060 first-time claims in California because of service-industry layoffs, the Labor Department said Thursday. There is a one-week lag in data about claims in individual states.

Investors and analysts are watching the jobless figures to try to determine when the Federal Reserve might start pulling back its unprecedented stimulus efforts.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke roiled financial markets Wednesday when he suggested that the central bank could start reducing the $85 billion in bonds it buys each month by September if the outlook for the labor market improves substantially.

The unemployment rate dropped to 7.5% in April as the economy added 165,000 net new jobs.

WASHINGTON — A top Federal Reserve official said Wednesday that a decision on reducing the central bank's unprecedented economic stimulus efforts still is three to four months away as policymakers first must determine if the recovery is strong enough to handle such a pullback.

Catasauqua police officer Scott M. Rothrock had already been stabbed once in the chest with a 13-inch butcher knife and was trying to block other stabbing attempts as he lay on his back in a snow bank in east Allentown last month.